ABSTRACT
The growth of populist movements across the world, primarily on the political right, has been rapid. How people engage with such movements through their participation in public events of dissent can shed light onto how such populism frames and articulates concepts of accessibility, inclusion, and diversity. In critical event studies (CES), scholarship around protest as event and activism as leisure, we are interested in the big picture around events, but sometimes we need to find tools to dig deeper so that ways into working that bigger picture can present themselves. In this chapter, the author interrogates his observations of an anti-corruption rally which took place in São Paulo on 5 December 2016. The rally was coordinated by a number of populist groups within Brazil. It is argued that whilst CES is best placed to support us in gaining greater insight into such events of dissent, to do so requires a conceptual grasp of the complexity of participation in such events. It is suggested that an approach to conceptualising such protests is possible through a combination of the typology of leisure practice developed by Rob Stebbins, with the advocacy coalition framework of policy theorist Paul Sabatier.
